16 2GM Monday June 29 2020 | the times
News
Two thirds of the public believe that a
minority of political activists are being
given too much say over how Britain
treats its monuments, a report says.
Only one in ten people said that they
would support the removal of the
bronze statue of Winston Churchill in
Parliament Square.
Black Lives Matter campaigners in
the UK have drawn up a list of statues,
including Churchill’s, that they want to
see removed over the commemorated
individuals’ views on race.
The polling was published by Policy
Exchange, a centre-right think tank, to
mark the launch of its History Matters
Project, which is chaired by Trevor
Phillips, the former head of the Equali-
ty and Human Rights Commission. He
said the project was started in response
to the “rapid and unthinking way” that
campaigners were erasing and rewrit-
ing large parts of public heritage.Only one in ten people said that they would back the removal of Churchill’s bronze statue from Parliament SquareSIMON DAWSON/REUTERSThe Black Lives Matter movement was
accused by Jewish groups of the “spread
of hatred” after its official Twitter
account put out a series of messages
about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a string of posts to its 60,
followers, the account claimed that
British politics had been “gagged of the
right to critique Zionism”.
Marie van der Zyl, president of the
Board of Deputies of British Jews, said
that it was an “antisemitic trope” that
discussions concerning Israel were
being stifled.
She said: “It is beyond disappointing
that a supposedly anti-racist
organisation has leant in-
to the antisemitic trope
that British politics is
‘gagged’ in terms of
debating Israel.
“However, the
failings of this
particular group
will not stop us
standing along-
side black people
in their quest for
justice, whether in-
side or outside our
community,” she added.
The Black Lives Matter
tweets were in response to plans
by Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime
minister, to effectively annex parts of
the occupied West Bank. The plan,
which could be initiated from next
month, involves applying Israeli sover-
eignty to the parts of the West Bank
that contain Jewish settlements.
Previously, the move would have
faced solid opposition among the inter-
national community but President
Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan,
which was unveiled in January, allows
BLM accused
of spreading
hate in tweet
on West Bank
Ben Ellery Israel to “incorporate” the settlements
— a radical shift from previous US posi-
tions.
The BLM UK account wrote: “As
Israel moves forward with the
annexation of the West Bank, and
mainstream British politics is gagged of
the right to critique Zionism, and Israel’s
settler colonial pursuits, we loudly and
clearly stand beside our Palestinian
comrades. FREE PALESTINE.”
In response, the Campaign Against
Antisemitism charity wrote: “The
Black Lives Matter movement should
embrace solidarity from Jews... BLM
should aspire to be a movement against
racism that unifies people and achieves
lasting change, not a move-
ment that spreads hatred
and achieves lasting
division. You cannot
fight prejudice with
prejudice.”
Femi Olumole, a
human rights cam-
paigner, wrote: “I’d
never even seen
this account until
someone showed
me this tweet.
THEY DO NOT
REPRESENT US.”
The BLM movement
was thrust into the spotlight
after George Floyd, an African-
American man, was killed when a
police officer in Minneapolis knelt on
his neck for nearly nine minutes.
There have been questions over the
group’s funding and its ambition to
dismantle capitalism.
This month The Times revealed that
a campaigner from the Socialist Work-
ers Party, a hard-left group, had
appeared on TV claiming to be an orga-
niser for BLM. The group denied mem-
bers of the SWP were organisers.
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American man wasStatue activists ‘lack public support’
Of the 1,560 Britons surveyed, only
17 per cent said that UK history as a
whole was something to be ashamed of,
while 65 per cent agreed that “it is un-
fair to make judgments about people in
the past based on today’s values”.
The polling found that the public be-
lieved people should be better educated
about British colonial history.
Several institutions have said either
that they are taking steps to remove ele-
ments linked with colonialism and the
slave trade or are considering the move.
Mr Phillips said: “At a minimum, we
think there needs to be pause for reflec-
tion — and to consider what is being
done, why and with what effect.”
He added: “My worry is too that this
new culture war risks distracting us
from the practical steps that need to be
taken to make a real and lasting practi-
cal difference to the lives of BAME
people in this country.”
Trevor Phillips, page 22
Letters, page 24Tom Ball Worth remembering...
The Times asked historians,
campaigners and cultural figures for
their suggestions for the effigies of
the future:
6 Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief
executive of the Equality
Commission, nominated Elizabeth
Garrett Anderson, the first woman
to obtain a medical qualification.
6 Lisa Hilton, a historian, chose
Angelica Kauffman, one of the two
female founder members of the
Royal Academy.
6 Peter Tatchell, the human rights
campaigner, nominated Olaudah
Equiano, a writer and slave
abolitionist.
6 Dame Hilary Mantel, the novelist,
said the practice was redundant in
the modern era.